Moving back from the biological basis to the introspective level, I’d expect the high-prolactin afterglow state to reduce anxiety enough to compensate for decreased motivation. (This might be related to whether one gets wired up or sleepy after sex, which has surprisingly large individual variation.) Easy enough to set up a randomised trial.
No. High oxytocin is present whether you orgasm or not, as we just established. I expect this to help productivity. I also expect that orgasm would
Hurt productivity, because “so sleepy and satisfied, why do anything?” (from low dopamine, possibly from high prolactin)
Help productivity, because “feeling so relaxed, doing things that normally make me so anxious and icky is so easy right now” (from high prolactin; sex without orgasm (high-oxytocin, low-prolactin) does provide some pleasant feelings but not this specific effect)
Help productivity overall, relative to sex without orgasm
Thanks!
Moving back from the biological basis to the introspective level, I’d expect the high-prolactin afterglow state to reduce anxiety enough to compensate for decreased motivation. (This might be related to whether one gets wired up or sleepy after sex, which has surprisingly large individual variation.) Easy enough to set up a randomised trial.
You probably meant high-oxytocin afterglow.
No. High oxytocin is present whether you orgasm or not, as we just established. I expect this to help productivity. I also expect that orgasm would
Hurt productivity, because “so sleepy and satisfied, why do anything?” (from low dopamine, possibly from high prolactin)
Help productivity, because “feeling so relaxed, doing things that normally make me so anxious and icky is so easy right now” (from high prolactin; sex without orgasm (high-oxytocin, low-prolactin) does provide some pleasant feelings but not this specific effect)
Help productivity overall, relative to sex without orgasm